valleyranch wrote:Tulsi Gabbard reveals she met Assad in Syria, without informing top DemocratsHawaiian congresswoman claims she went on a ‘fact-finding’ mission in support of ‘peace’ for Syrian people, but characterized US-backed rebels as ‘terrorists’ tulsi gabbardTulsi Gabbard backed a bill to block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from resettling in the US. She is the first US lawmaker to meet with the Syrian president since the conflict began. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/APSabrina Siddiqui in Washington Thursday 26 January 2017 12.58 EST Last modified on Thursday 26 January 2017 16.40 EST View more sharing optionsShares4,507Comments723Democrats were silent on Thursday as Tulsi Gabbard, one of the party’s sitting lawmakers in Congress, announced that she had met with Bashar al-Assad during a trip to war-torn Syria and dismissed his entire opposition as “terrorists”.

Gabbard, a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, disclosed her meeting with the Syrian president on Wednesday, during what her office called a “fact-finding” mission in the region.

Syria peace talks: rebels appear to rule out ceasefire role for Iran Read more“Initially I hadn’t planned on meeting him,” Gabbard told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “When the opportunity arose to meet with him, I did so, because I felt it’s important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there is a possibility that we could achieve peace. And that’s exactly what we talked about.”

Democratic leaders were mum on the decision by one of their sitting lawmakers to meet with a dictator whom the US government has dubbed a war criminal for his use of chemical weapons against civilians.

As an aside, what rank is required for a public official to go meddling n a proverbial "fact finding mission" I'm pretty sure if several members of pther country's legislators were up in our business all the time.